Famous birthdays by year
Famous People Born in 1908
Born in 1908? Meet the well-known people who share your birth year, from the biggest names to the ones you might not expect, month by month.
Turning 118 in 2026 · Chinese zodiac: Year of the Monkey
The 1900s
The most famous people born in 190848
1908–1986Simone de Beauvoir
French existentialist philosopher whose book The Second Sex became a foundational text of modern feminism
PhilosophyWould be 118
Photo: Moshe Milner · CC BY-SA 3.0
1908–1973Lyndon B. Johnson
36th US President who signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act but escalated the Vietnam War
PoliticsWould be 118
Photo: Arnold Newman · Public domain
1908–1973Salvador Allende
Chilean doctor who became the first Marxist elected president in Latin America and died in the 1973 coup
PoliticsWould be 118
Photo: Bernard Gotfryd · Public domain
1908–1989Bette Davis
American actress of All About Eve and Jezebel who won two Oscars and was the first to earn ten acting nominations
FilmWould be 118
Photo: Studio Publicity · Public domain
1908–1964Ian Fleming
British naval intelligence officer and journalist who created James Bond, beginning with the 1953 novel Casino Royale
LiteratureWould be 118
Photo: Erich Hartmann · Public domain
1908–1985Enver Hoxha
Communist leader who ruled Albania for over forty years
PoliticsWould be 118
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain
1908–2009100 ClubClaude Lévi-Strauss
French anthropologist who pioneered structuralism in the social sciences
PoliticsWould be 117
Photo: UNESCO/Michel Ravassard · CC BY 3.0
1908–1968Lev Landau
Nobel Prize-winning Soviet physicist who studied superfluidity and condensed matter
ScienceWould be 118
Photo: Nobel foundation · Public domain
Born in 1908, month by month
- January
- Simone de Beauvoir (January 9) · French existentialist philosopher whose book The Second Sex became a foundational text of modern feminism
- Edward Teller (January 15) · Hungarian-American physicist known as the father of the hydrogen bomb
- Ethel Merman (January 16) · American actress and singer celebrated as the queen of Broadway
- Lev Landau (January 22) · Nobel Prize-winning Soviet physicist who studied superfluidity and condensed matter
- February
- Amintore Fanfani (February 3) · Italian politician who served as Prime Minister on five occasions
- March
- Rex Harrison (March 5) · Oscar-winning English actor known for playing Professor Henry Higgins
- Anna Magnani (March 7) · Oscar-winning actress who was a leading figure of Italian neorealism
- Maurice Merleau-Ponty (March 14) · French philosopher known for his work on phenomenology and perception
- David Lean (March 25) · Director of epic films including Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago
- April
- Abraham Maslow (April 1) · Psychologist who developed the hierarchy of needs theory
- Bette Davis (April 5) · American actress of All About Eve and Jezebel who won two Oscars and was the first to earn ten acting nominations
- Herbert von Karajan (April 5) · Renowned Austrian conductor who led the Berlin Philharmonic for decades
- Józef Gosławski (April 24) · Polish sculptor and designer of many Polish coins
- Oskar Schindler (April 28) · German businessman who saved 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust
- May
- Enver Hoxha (May 12) · Communist leader who ruled Albania for over forty years
- James Stewart (May 20) · Star of Hollywood classics like It's a Wonderful Life
- John Bardeen (May 23) · American physicist who co-invented the transistor
- Ian Fleming (May 28) · British naval intelligence officer and journalist who created James Bond, beginning with the 1953 novel Casino Royale
- Hannes Alfvén (May 30) · Nobel Prize-winning physicist and pioneer of plasma physics
- Don Ameche (May 31) · Oscar-winning American actor known for the film Cocoon
- June
- Otto Skorzeny (June 12) · German commando leader during the Second World War
- Willard Van Orman Quine (June 25) · Influential American philosopher and logician
- Salvador Allende (June 26) · Chilean doctor who became the first Marxist elected president in Latin America and died in the 1973 coup
- July
- Andrei Gromyko (July 5) · Long-serving Soviet Foreign Minister known as Mr No
- Nelson Rockefeller (July 8) · American businessman and politician who served as Vice President
- August
- Harold Holt (August 5) · Australian Prime Minister who mysteriously disappeared while swimming at sea
- Henri Cartier-Bresson (August 22) · Influential French photographer and pioneer of the candid street photography style
- Lyndon B. Johnson (August 27) · 36th US President who signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act but escalated the Vietnam War
- William Saroyan (August 31) · Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter
- September
- Richard Wright (September 4) · Author known for influential works including Native Son and Black Boy
- Victor Ambartsumian (September 5) · Armenian astrophysicist who founded the Byurakan Observatory
- Cesare Pavese (September 9) · Italian novelist and poet who translated major American works
- David Oistrakh (September 17) · Renowned Soviet violinist and conductor
- Mika Waltari (September 19) · Finnish author of the international historical bestseller The Egyptian
- October
- Carole Lombard (October 6) · Hollywood actress famous for screwball comedy films like My Man Godfrey
- Ilya Frank (October 10) · Soviet physicist and Nobel Prize winner for explaining Cherenkov radiation
- Mercè Rodoreda (October 10) · Influential Catalan novelist who wrote the book In Diamond Square
- John Kenneth Galbraith (October 15) · Canadian-American economist, public official, and influential author
- Dmitriy Ustinov (October 17) · Soviet politician and Marshal of the Soviet Union
- November
- Giovanni Leone (November 3) · Italian politician who served as President and Prime Minister of Italy
- Joseph Rotblat (November 4) · Nobel Peace Prize-winning physicist and anti-nuclear weapons campaigner
- Teizo Takeuchi (November 6) · Japanese international defender who competed in the 1936 Olympics
- Joseph McCarthy (November 14) · US Senator known for leading anti-communist investigations
- Claude Lévi-Strauss (November 28) · French anthropologist who pioneered structuralism in the social sciences
- December
- Alfred Hershey (December 4) · Nobel Prize-winning scientist who proved DNA is the genetic material
- Olivier Messiaen (December 10) · Renowned French composer known for his complex twentieth-century works
- Willard Libby (December 17) · Physical chemist who won the Nobel Prize for developing radiocarbon dating
- Simon Wiesenthal (December 31) · Holocaust survivor who became a prominent hunter of Nazi fugitives